Starship Troopers Screenwriter Promises A More Faithful Adaptation

First Total Recall, then RoboCop, and now Starship Troopers. Why can’t Hollywood leave Paul Verhoeven alone? While the RoboCop remake isn’t due in theaters until February, Hollywood is starting to work on another remake of a classic Paul Verhoeven science fiction film. This time it’s Starship Troopers. Love it or hate it, the Starship Troopers remake is likely to be the next PG-13 version of a classic rated-R sci-fi film. Or will it?

According to one of the remake’s writers, Zack Stentz, the remake will be closer to the Robert A. Heinlein’s original novel than Paul Verhoeven’s film. Zack Stentz had a long Twitter exchange with film blogger Scott Weinberg about the project, where he described the new approach to the film remake. Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers film took a satirical approach to source material, but Stentz says to expect a more faithful adaptation this time around.

@scottEweinberg Less a satire & more an actual adaptation of the Heinlein novel. An Officer & a Gentleman in power armor.

Starship Troopers follows a young soldier named John “Johnny” Rico (Casper Van Dien in the original film) and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit. Rico’s military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer during an interstellar war between mankind and the “Arachnids,” or “Bugs,” an insectoid alien species.

Starship Troopers screenwriters Ashley Miller & Zack Stentz have a background in TV sci-fi, having worked on both Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The pair branched off into feature films with X-Men: First Class, and now the pair will be working on the new Terminator TV series that will tie-in with the rebooted film franchise.

One person who isn’t happy about all these Paul Verhoeven movie remakes is…Paul Verhoeven. Last spring he told the Huffington Post:

It’s to make money. It’s like washing fluids: You add some mini changes, give it another color and you sell it again. You know, it’s the same. That’s what it is. It’s like cookies: You change the form and the box and put more modern colors around it and say, ‘We have new cookies.’

There is no further information about the Starship Troopers remake, but Neal Moritz will produce the film. Moritz has a few big film blockbusters under his belt, including Battle: Los Angeles, I Am Legend, and S.W.A.T.. Neal Moritz has also been part of the entire Fast & Furious franchise, from the first film in 2001 all the way up through the seventh installment, which is due in theaters on April 10, 2015.

There’s no telling when Starship Troopers will be out in theaters, but if Miller and Stentz are working on the film’s screenplay now, it’s most likely to open sometime in 2016.

Comments

As much as I liked the Verhoeven tongue in cheek version of Troopers, I always wanted something more faithful to the book. Very few of Heinlein’s books were done justice in the movies, one of the best so far being “The Puppet Masters” with Donald Sutherland.

I agree. The movie was very entertaining, but a very loose adaptation. A faithful version would show the infantry being badass, not cannon fodder. It’s been ages since I read the book, but isn’t it true that if the soldiers were one kilometer apart they were considered too close?

Verhoeven’s movie is great but had some pretty awful casting. I look forward to something closer to the book. The is the one new version of a Verhoeven movie that has the potential to be a good movie, maybe surpass the old.

Sorry but I don’t have faith in today’s Hollywood to make a good film. The remake of Total Recall was awful. What I’ve seen from Robocop suggests the same outcome as Recall. I’m sure this new Troopers will blow too. Remember that they took a more faithful adaptation for Recall too and you saw how that turned out. I’ll pass.